Challenge Entry 26: Voluntary Confinement
by Zokusho
Summary: As the entrance exams approach, Kagami finally gets enough of Konata's antics and refuses to see her anymore. But Konata won't accept it...


**Challenge Entry #26: Voluntary Confinement**

XOXO

"Tsukasa, don't cry. It's just a story," Kagami sighed.

They were at school, having lunch together. For some reason, Konata had asked something about Japanese mythology, and Miyuki was now telling them one of the legends. It was a familiar one they had studied way back at middle high school, but Tsukasa had forgotten all about it. Since the strangest things get asked in Japanese college exams, Kagami asked Miyuki to refresh their memories.

"B-but that poor little pony … that was so mean!" Tsukasa moaned.

"Sorry, Tsukasa-san, but that's the legend. I'm sure the little pony … horse, I mean, was reincarnated as one of her maids or something," Miyuki explained.

This only made Tsukasa cry even harder. "But that mean storm god killed one of her maids too!"

Konata patted Tsukasa's back and handed her a handkerchief. "I know the story, Tsukasa. It gets happier from now on."

"Hey, where did you get that? It's my favorite handkerchief –" Kagami started, but just at that point, Tsukasa blew her nose into it. "– but you can keep it, Tsukasa. And, Konata, how would you know anything about this? It's not like it's an anime or a manga!"

"Of course I have studied our mythology!" Konata exclaimed.

Kagami didn't believe this for a second. She glared at Konata until she confessed.

"Yeah, okay. So it was a manga, but –"

"You can't rely on manga versions of anything!" Kagami groaned. "You have to get serious! The entrance exams are in just a few weeks!"

"Relax, Kagamin –" Konata stopped talking because Kagami was still glaring at her. And this time it was not the standard glare. She was throwing daggers at her with her eyes.

"I give up!" Kagami yelled and stood up, sending her chair clattering onto the floor. "You can't take anything seriously! You will fail your college exams, and I can't help you! I can't take this anymore! From now on, I want you to leave me alone! I need to study! Study, study, study! I don't have the time to hang around with someone like you! Why did you even come to school? You should be at home, studying!"

Konata had turned pale. She knew this was no time to remind Kagami that she was also at school today – and she suspected it was because Kagami knew that Konata would be there as well. She tried to stutter something, but Kagami didn't even give her time to explain. Not that she could explain anything.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Kagami screamed, and stormed out of the classroom.

The entire class had fallen silent and everyone was staring at Konata. "Uh-oh …" she sighed.

XOXO

Two days later, they were again having lunch. Except it was without Kagami. For two days in a row.

"I haven't seen Kagami for days," Konata sighed. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah …" Tsukasa said, but she didn't look very confident. "She's at home, studying."

"We should be doing the same," Miyuki noted.

Konata chuckled a bit, but she didn't really feel like laughing. "So why are _you_ here, Miyuki?"

"Oh, I, needed to use the net, and while I was here, I thought that I'd better have lunch with you guys," Miyuki quickly explained.

Konata could have asked why Miyuki had brought a boxed lunch in that case, but she wasn't quite in the mood to tease Miyuki. At this point she started to realize that she was not in the mood for any fun whatsoever. Not seeing Kagami was really getting to her.

"I need my Kagamin!" she groaned.

"Uh, what?" Tsukasa and Miyuki asked in unison.

"I'm developing a Kagami deficiency! I must have a dose of Kagamin. Can I come to your house after school, Tsukasa?"

Tsukasa had a weird expression, and Konata and Miyuki looked at her, puzzled.

"No!" Tsukasa declared.

Konata's jaw dropped. "What!?"

"No, sis said she doesn't want _any_ visitors, especially not Ko- … I mean she said, she needs to study and doesn't want visitors," Tsukasa gasped.

"She … doesn't want to see me?"

Tsukasa's eyes were tearing up. "Sorry, Kona-chan, but that's what she said! She didn't really mean it … I mean I think she didn't really mean it. It's just because she's nervous about the exams. I'm sure she doesn't hate you, Kona-chan –"

The girls ate in silence for a few minutes.

Miyuki was feeling increasingly uncomfortable in the atmosphere, so she started talking. "Oh, Izumi-san, you said you had a _deficiency_. Actually that word is used only for conditions of vitamin deficiency or malnutrition –"

"Okay, what's the cure for that?" Konata interrupted.

"Oh. Just, increasing the intake of the necessary substances or nutrition, I guess –"

"I have to increase my intake of Kagamin!"

Both Tsukasa and Miyuki blushed slightly. "What?" Konata asked innocently. "Did I say something? Anyway, since I need my dose of Kagamin, I have to come to your house."

XOXO

"NO!" Kagami was practically screaming. "Go away! I already told you a thousand times! I will not come out of this room! I will only come out for the college exams, and that's FINAL!"

Konata had come to Hiiragi house a quarter of an hour earlier. She rushed upstairs right away, and found out that Kagami's door was indeed locked. And that Kagami wouldn't come out and see her. Nothing she had said so far had made any difference. At least Kagami was still talking to her. Or more like, arguing.

"But Kagamin –"

"NO!" Kagami interrupted Konata.

"But Kagamin," Konata still persisted, "You've got to come out to pee and –"

Konata couldn't quite finish the sentence, because she at the moment she didn't remember how to nicely express "number two's".

Kagami had stopped screaming. Now she sounded just cold. "No, I don't. I have a chamber pot in here."

Actually this was true. Kagami had an antique wooden chamber pot in her room, though she would never even consider using it for anything else than storing dirty clothes.

"No way!" Konata gasped.

"So, get out! And let me study in peace!"

Now Kagami's voice sounded sad and Konata thought she heard a sniff. "Okay … I'll be back tomorrow."

"Don't come back! Go home and study!" Kagami screamed.

Konata didn't reply. Her head hung down, she shambled downstairs.

Tsukasa followed her. Downstairs, she muttered, "Sis doesn't even let me in," and started crying quietly.

"This is serious. Worst _tsuntsun_ episode she's ever had! Doesn't she have to eat?" Konata asked. "She must be starving. Maybe I should cook one of her favorite dishes? She can't resist the scent and has to come out."

"No, I bring her meals. I leave the tray at her door, and she always manages to take it in when nobody's watching …" Tsukasa muttered.

"Stop bringing her meals! Then she has to come out!"

"No way!" Tsukasa gasped. "I can't bear the thought of sis going hungry."

"Maybe we should yell that the house is on fire or something? She would be forced to come out."

Tsukasa stared at Konata in disbelief. "That's awful! She would never forgive us."

"Yeah, maybe. Unless the house actually _was _on fire…"

Miki Hiiragi, the mother of the Hiiragi sisters, interfered. "No, Konata. We won't set the house on fire just to force Kagami out."

Tsukasa sighed in relief.

"…not yet, at least. Maybe if nothing else helps," Miki continued.

Tsukasa let out a little yelp and stared at her mother in horror.

"So we don't want to force her out…" Konata pondered.

"And she refuses to talk about it, I mean, other than saying she wants to study, she won't come out, and that she's just fine," Miki noted. "I tried, and so did dad and each of her sisters. Then we tried together. To no avail."

Konata twirled a lock of blue hair around her finger, while thinking intensely. "I suppose I could dress up like Misaki …" she said to herself.

Tsukasa and Miki looked at each other, but neither had any idea what Konata was talking about.

"One of my friends once locked himself into a cave …" Konata muttered.

"She's talking about an online game," Tsukasa explained to her mother.

Suddenly Konata jumped up, but her thighs hit the edge of the kotatsu and she was slammed back into sitting position again.

"A cave!" she gasped, not even noticing the pain. "Heureka!"

Tsukasa and Miki could almost see a bright, virtual light bulb appearing above Konata's head.

"What, Kona-chan?" Tsukasa asked.

"I – I can't tell you yet. This requires some preparation. But … it will work. I know it will!" Konata exclaimed. She jumped up – more careful this time, grabbed her coat and shoes and rushed out.

XOXO

Two days had passed. It was Saturday, around midday, when Kagami heard something. First, the doorbell had rung and then there was some kind of a commotion downstairs.

She tried to ignore the noise and keep on reading, but frankly, she was utterly bored with her self-imposed detention. Yet, she was far too proud to admit defeat and come out. No, she would stay inside until the exam day. No matter what Konata tried, she would never budge.

She heard Tsukasa's voice. "What _is_ that, Kona-chan!? How did you carry that here?"

Kagami put her headphones back on and turned the music volume up, muttering, "I told her not to come here … I will not even listen to her this time. Serves her right if she fails her exams, coming to cheer me up instead of …"

She shook her head and forced herself to stop that line of thinking. It would have only made her even more miserable, to think that Konata would come here just for her. Except now she already had thought that and it _made_ her even more miserable. "Damn her! I'll talk to her … after the exams. She should not be here!"

Downstairs, the rest of the Hiiragi girls, and their mother, had come to look.

"Never mind that, what on earth are you _wearing_, Izumi?" Matsuri gasped.

"Is that cosplay?" Miki asked. "Why are you cosplaying?"

"I have a cunning plan!" Konata announced, and, ignoring their questions, continued dragging the _thing_ she had with her upstairs.

"I don't know what's going on, but I bet we want to see this," Inori noted, and followed Konata.

"Do you need help with that, Kona-chan?" Tsukasa asked, because the "thing" was obviously heavy.

"T-thanks, but I can manage," Konata gasped.

Inside her room, Kagami couldn't resist listening to what was going on after all. She slipped one side of the headphones off of her ear. She heard her sisters talking, and then, a loud thump, and screams. "Watch out! You're going to fall!"

That was Matsuri's voice.

"I'm okay!" Konata replied.

"That looks dangerous! Why are you dragging that thing upstairs?" Miki yelled.

"For Kagamin!"

"You'll get hurt. Girls, let's help her," Miki said.

Next, Kagami heard groans and grunts, and someone groaning, "Tsukasa, you're pulling into the wrong direction!"

Another loud thump, just outside her room, and then, silence. Kagami could almost _hear_ them staring, mouths open, at … whatever the thing was Konata had brought. By now, Kagami had turned the music off again. She was simply far too curious. But, obviously, her door didn't have a spy hole, and she would not open the door, at least not as long as Konata was there. That would be like admitting defeat.

"So what are you _doing_ with that thing?" Matsuri's voice asked.

"You'll see. Let me get something from downstairs," Konata answered.

Kagami sighed, and put her school books away. She stood up, tiptoed to the door, and tried to listen what was going on. At the moment she could hear Konata's cute little footsteps when she was hurrying back downstairs. Her sisters and mother were talking in the hallway.

"_Eww … 'cute' footsteps? What was I thinking,"_ Kagami groaned in her mind. But now she realized that she had always thought Konata was really, really cute. From her cute little toes up to her cute 'idiot hair'. And that she really wanted to see Konata. But she couldn't…

She heard Konata coming back, and putting something else on the floor.

"What's that for, Kona-chan?" Tsukasa asked.

Before Konata said anything, Hiiragi mother gasped, "That costume! And that thing … you can't be serious!"

There was a click, and then, sound of wooden clappers.

"So it's a performance?" Kagami muttered. The sound of _hyōshigi_ was traditionally used to announce the beginning of a performance.

Drums joined in, then a flute, then Kagami heard a hollow thump, followed by another. Her sisters and mother gasped and 'ooh'ed.

There were more thumps, following the rhythm of the traditional Japanese music of sorts that was now playing, probably from a CD player, Kagami thought.

"K-Kona-chan!" Tsukasa's voice gasped.

"You can't!" Inori yelled.

Kagami could hear Matsuri bursting into laughter.

And her mother was chuckling as well. "So this is what you came up with, Izumi."

Apart from Kagami's mother, it sounded like the girls were going hysterical. Tsukasa yelled for Konata to stop, while Inori and Matsuri were both laughing and tittering.

"I can't look!" Tsukasa yelled.

And then Kagami couldn't take it anymore.

She turned the key, unlocking the door, and pushed it open – it was a sliding door as they often are in Japanese homes. And then she saw what was going on.

Konata was just throwing away a piece of silk she was wearing. It landed on Tsukasa's face.

Konata was on the top of a small, round wooden bathtub, dancing. The piece of silk she had been thrown away had been the last thing she had been wearing, leaving her as naked as in the day she was born. A CD player was blasting traditional Japanese music behind her.

Matsuri and Inori were leading onto the wall, because they were just laughing too hard. Tsukasa had fallen onto her bum, and was sitting on the floor now. Kagami couldn't see her face because Konata's loincloth was covering it. Her mother Miki was cheering and clapping her hands, and shamelessly ogling Konata.

Almost reflectively, Kagami grabbed Konata's hand, yanked the naked blunette inside her room, slammed the door shut, locked it, and dropped the key down her neckline.

XOXO

Somehow Konata had ended up on Kagami's arms. They were hugging. Kagami couldn't remember which one of them had hugged whom, but the main thing is that Konata was on her arms. She had buried her face into Kagami's neck. "Kagamin! I missed you!" she muttered, which tickled Kagami's neck and made her shift a bit.

Then Kagami started to realize that Konata was still naked. Obviously, because she had just yanked her inside and not given her any time to dress up again. The realization was a bit of a shock, and Kagami took a step backwards.

Konata didn't let go, and the back of Kagami's knees hit her bed, and so they ended up lying on the bed, Konata on top. Konata raised her head, looked Kagami into the eyes, grinned and exclaimed, "Reap time?" in English.

Perhaps fortunately, Kagami didn't understand what she meant by this joke, and yelled, "Get off of me! What the hell were you thinking, coming here and stripping naked in front of everyone!"

"Well you didn't come out and you didn't let me in. I'd been happy to make it a private performance –"

"I didn't mean I wanted a private performance!" Kagami groaned, and struggled weakly, to get Konata off of her. Or maybe she didn't want Konata to get off after all. She was so smooth and warm, though a bit sweaty after her 'performance'.

The music in the hallway had stopped. "Come downstairs to have lunch when you're finished," they heard Miki saying. "In half an hour or so. You too, Izumi."

"Finished? Finished what?" Kagami muttered.

"Finished making out?"

"What!?"

"Uh, making up! I meant, making up!"

"Why would we need to make out? Make up, make up, I mean!" Kagami quickly corrected. "We don't have a quarrel, do we? I just wanted some peace and quiet. And you just couldn't let me –"

"Nah, you don't really want to be all alone. You missed me sooo much."

Konata had brought her face dangerously close to Kagami's face. Their lips were almost touching. Somehow Kagami's limbs seemed to have lost all strength and she couldn't push Konata away.

"Okay, okay. Maybe I missed you. Now, would you please put some clothes on," Kagami yelled. Or, rather, she wanted to yell but it came out more like a whisper.

"There's nothing you haven't seen before. We've been bathing together and so on, remember."

"I haven't even looked!"

"Aww, why not? I've always looked at you."

Kagami's entire face was blushing brilliant red, even her neck was turning red, which Konata noticed to her amusement.

"Okay, then," Konata said, "but my clothes are outside, the door is locked, and the key – hey, why did you drop the key in _there_ anyway?" – Konata tried to look down Kagami's neckline. "Did you want me to dig it out?"

"No, of course not! I-I just wasn't thinking straight!"

Kagami tried once again to push Konata off, but her hands ended up in an inappropriate place.

"Oh!" Konata gasped, and blushed herself. "Not so roughly, Kagamin! You have to be gentle with me!"

"I wasn't trying – that was just an accident – sheesh, get off already!"

Ignoring the fact _where_ her palms were pushing exactly, Kagami finally found the strength to push Konata off. But somehow she just ended on top of her instead.

"We're still underage!" Konata reminded. "That is, you are. I'm already an adult … but I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet, Kagamin."

"Are you okay, onee-chan, Kona-chan?" Tsukasa's voice asked from behind the door.

"Yes!" Kagami yelled. "We are just fine!"

"Help, Tsukasa! She's forcing me to – mmmph!" Konata's voice was muffled by Kagami's palm on her mouth.

"I'm not forcing her to do anything!" Kagami shouted.

"O-okay, sis, if you say so," Tsukasa stuttered. "Lunch is in fifteen minutes, so…"

"Yeah, we'll be there."

Kagami listened to Tsukasa walking away. "Wait, I wasn't going to leave this room! –"

Konata wrestled Kagami's hand off of her mouth. "Give up, Kagami. You already let me in, so there's no reason you can't come out now."

Kagami sighed. "Yeah … I guess so. But you tricked me! In fact, what you did back there … that's blasphemy!"

"No!" Konata exclaimed, looking shocked. "Definitely not! I simply needed my goddess to come out of the cave, so I did the same that goddess did –"

"But I'm not a goddess, and neither are you!"

"Don't they re-enact god stuff at kabuki theatre as well? See, nothing wrong with that."

Kagami's eyes widened suddenly. "Wait … did you say I'm _your_ goddess?"

It was rare to see Konata blush, and now she blushed twice on the same day. "Can't you see, Kagami? Isn't it obvious? The things I've done and said today, I wasn't joking. Well, not all of it was a joke, anyway."

Maybe it had been obvious, but Kagami had not even really thought about the possibility. Not consciously, at least. Of course, she realized it now.

"Uh, well … it's not like I like you too or anything, b-but … maybe, you know, it's just natural to experiment with things when you're young, and … so perhaps we could try. Just to see if it works out, and, as I said, experiment with …"

"All right, Kagamin! Go ahead, I'm yours!"

"… but only after the exams!"

"I should have guessed."

Kagami stood up and turned around. "Now, would you please wear something. My bathrobe is hanging over there."

To Kagami's relief, Konata obeyed. She looked far too cute in a white fluffy bathrobe which was too large for her, but at the moment Kagami got something else in her mind.

"I can't find the key!" she groaned, frantically groping her shirt.

"Huh? Where could it have gone? Should I help finding it?"

Kagami didn't answer, so Konata simply walked up to her and slid her hands inside Kagami's jeans. Both had again turned bright red, but Kagami didn't resist, so Konata started feeling around.

"He he, I got into your pants after all," Konata chuckled.

"Shut up! And don't grab my ass! I'm pretty sure the key isn't on that side!"

Of course, Kagami could have simply taken her clothes off until they found the key, but this was much more enjoyable. For both of them, apparently, though Kagami pretended to be embarrassed.

"You want me to search the front side then?" Konata asked.

"No!"

Nevertheless, Konata's hands were soon feeling and groping the front of Kagami. She carefully avoided the penalty zones – knowing that neither of them were quite ready for something like that.

"Uh, Konata … I just realized …" Kagami gasped.

"What?"

"We don't need the key to open the door from this side."

* * *

I've seen a few things they ask in Japanese final exams, and they are indeed weird.

Shame on you if you don't know what legend Konata was re-enacting.


End file.
